1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an e-mail printing device, an e-mail printing system, a confirmation notifying method and a storage medium storing a confirmation notifying program which makes it possible to confirm the content of a printed document, and more particularly to an e-mail printing device, an e-mail printing system, a confirmation notifying method and a storage medium storing a confirmation notifying program which makes it possible for a sender to recognize without fail that the content of a document received by an e-mail and printed out has been confirmed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, with a device or a system for printing out received data by, for example, automatic printing of a file sent by an Internet facsimile or a network scanner or a file attached to an e-mail, an output document cannot be securely confirmed by a sender. Therefore, the sender needs to confirm with the recipient by using another means such as a telephone, a messenger or the like.
It is therefore necessary to use such means to check every time a document is sent, but they cannot be used to send and receive information which requires communications in real time, and it is also difficult to use them to send and receive highly important information such as information desired to be transmitted without fail.
There is a related art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-247335 that a receipt confirmation notice indicating the reception of an e-mail is sent to the sender of the e-mail, so that the sender can check whether the destination party has received the e-mail.
According to the related art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-247335, in an environment where there are a system (personal computer) using the Internet and a system (facsimile device) using a public line other than the Internet, it is possible to receive an original by either of the systems, and a printing process and the like of an e-mail by the Internet can be made efficiently.
And, as a related art, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-130554 discloses a technique which makes it possible to securely know whether or not the content, which is requested to be printed by an e-mail, has been printed normally by a designated printing device.
The related art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-130554 generates a record which is associated with a mail identifier of the e-mail with regard to the print processing result of printout, writes it in an intermediate file, reads the record from the intermediate file, generates a delivery report or an undelivery report according to the content of the results of the determined print processing, and notifies the sender.
But, according to the related art disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 09-247335 and 08-130554, it can be checked whether the content of e-mail or the like which is requested to be printed has been output without fail, but it cannot be recognized whether the content of the output document is confirmed securely by the recipient designated as the destination, and the transmission of a document with high importance must be checked separately by means of a telephone or the like.